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Chassis:
The third Lotus 15 built, this example was retained by Team Lotus for Cliff Allison and Graham Hill to race. Fitted with a 1.5-litre engine, it was first raced by Hill at the April 1958 British Empire Trophy at Oulton Park. A spark plug failure ended his charge early. The car was subsequently raced by the factory team throughout the 1958 season but it is not quite clear who raced which Team Lotus Type 15 at what event. It is believed that Hill used chassis 603 to win at Silverstone in May, scoring the model's first outright win. Ahead of the 1959 season, the car was sold to David Piper. He raced the car with a variety of engine sizes all over Europe through to the spring of 1961. It was then acquired by Desmond Addicott, who had his mechanic John Dabbs fit a Buick V8. In this guise, Addicott raced the car with considerable success during the 1962 season, winning at Goodwood. Next owner John Turner then raced the car during the 1964 season. Subsequent owners continued to race the V8-engined Lotus 15 through to 1968. It was then raced in historic events until it was acquired by Ken Rogers in 1986. He removed the V8-engine and started what would be a 24-year restoration of the car to its factory specification. The work was not quite completed when it was bought in 2010 by Lotus enthusiast Peter Horsman. The work was finally completed in 2013 for Horsman by Andrew Tart Motor Engineers. He sold the car to the next owners late in 2014. They raced the car at select events during the 2017 season before consigning the car to British dealer William I'Anson.
Chassis details |
Manufactured in |
April 1958 |
First owner |
Team Lotus |
License plate |
007 MH |
Last known location |
South African Historic Racer |
Appearances |
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